Friday, June 10, 2016

I get many e-mails saying that "this would be a great blog" if I didn't hammer on the F-35 so much.

My response?

I MUST hammer on the F-35.

We're seeing the biggest defense procurement scandal in our nation's history and the Defense Media is missing in action on it. So is Congress. Our military leadership that KNOWS BETTER has remained silent and allowed the hustlers, con artists and thieves take charge of our military procurement system.

The latest news that needs to be amplified...the news that needs to be shouted to the rooftops? The F-35 will not be truly ready for combat till 2022. Forget the lies that the Deputy Commandant for Aviation (General Davis) has told you. Forget the fact that the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs simply went along with the lie instead of showing moral courage and telling his Deputy Commandant that he was full of shit and to get his sorry ass in a corner.

The Senate appropriators are correct in their hesitancy: consideration of a block buy or multiyear procurement is still incredibly premature. The F-35 program is officially still in Low Rate Initial Production, a phase during development intended to refine the manufacturing process and produce enough planes for combat testing. It is also intended to provide enough production-representative vehicles to support Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOT&E). According to federal law, increasing to Full-Rate Production can only occur after IOT&E.The program is not expected to begin IOT&E until 2018 and, as we have previously reported, this process will not be complete before the first half of 2022. The F-35 program has already subverted the entire acquisition process by standing up operational squadrons before basic flight testing has been completed. Buying several hundred more planes before they have been fully developed will only make things worse.The point can’t be made often enough that the Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin want a block buy and not a multiyear purchase contract. Congress typically authorizes most weapons buying programs on a year-by-year basis to ensure proper oversight and to maintain incentives for the contractor to produce satisfactory results. According to Title 10 U.S.C., Section 2306b, a program is eligible for multiyear procurement if the contract promotes national security, results in substantial savings, has little chance of being reduced, and has a stable design.

This isn't about promoting national security.

It's criminality on a multi-national scale based on a fraudulent procurement scheme! This has gone from being an issue affecting the United States Marine Corps to being an issue concerning the survival of the West.